Traditional switching systems comprising of a switch core, a customer interface and a service provider interface provide static allocation of resources. Thus, when two or more sources desire to provide data to the same destination port while at the same time providing a particular Quality of Service (QoS) or class of service, the sources are set up so that the sum of the bandwidths allocated to different sources is less than or equal to the bandwidth of the destination port. However, if one of the sources is utilizing only a part of the bandwidth allocated to it, there is no robust mechanism for the other sources to adjust their bandwidths in real time so as to utilize the maximum bandwidth of the destination port. Thus, the destination port is not utilized to its maximum capacity even though some sources of data may be operating at a lower bandwidth and there might be data available at these sources to allow them to utilize the destination port up to its maximum capacity.
As an example, if the destination port has a bandwidth of 10 Gbps and two sources are sending data to the destination port, the first source can be set to send data at say 3 Gbps and the second source can be set to send data at 7 Gbps. However, if the second source is only sending data at 1 Gbps there is no robust mechanism to allow the first source to adjust its data rate even though the first source may be capable of sending data at a higher rate. Thus, the destination port remains underutilized.